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Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg
New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
I'm D.J. Rasmussen, O.K.s friend since junior high, possibly your neighbor & this websites maintainer, whom strives to get each episode's show notes written, the transcript proofed and the audio posted to the internet within a few hours of that days KMMR air time. NOTE: recently been publishing most new releases by 4:30PM.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the time we can spend together.
I want to again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Guys, you wanna get a cup of coffee? Maybe a glass iced tea. Bottle of water? Tell you what I'll do. Make it the beverage of your choice, and let's see what's happening out there.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat $6.21 a bushel, 550lb steer calf, for fall delivery $5.05 on the top end per pound, and a 100lb lamb that's fat in Billings $3.20 a pound on the top end.
OK Solberg:Okay? Now gather around kitties and hear my story. There was nothing particularly heroic about a red bandana, at least not when Wells Crother was a boy.
OK Solberg:His father gave him one and told him to carry it in his back pocket, so he did. He carried it through childhood, through school, and into college. When he played Lacrosse, well he even wore one beneath his helmet.
OK Solberg:It became part of Wells, but nobody knew just how important that little piece of cloth would become. Wells was 24 years old in September 2001. He worked as an equities trader on the 104th floor of the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
OK Solberg:But there was another side to him. He was a volunteer firefighter. And shortly before September 11th, Wells had told his father that he didn't think he wanted to spend the rest of his life sitting behind a computer screen.
OK Solberg:He was well, he was thinking about becoming a New York City firefighter. He never got the chance. On the morning of September 11th, a hijacked airplane slammed into the South Tower. People on the 78th Floor sky lobby were trapped in smoke, darkness, and confusion.
OK Solberg:Then out of that smoke appeared a young man. He wasn't wearing a firefighter's uniform. He wasn't wearing a helmet. He was wearing a red bandana that he had pulled over his nose and mouth. He spoke calmly. He found the stairway and began directing people towards it. He helped people who were injured.
OK Solberg:Then he took them downstairs. And, you know, here's the part that makes the story hard to forget. He went back up. He returned to the smoke filled 78th Floor. He found more people.
OK Solberg:He helped them towards the stairs. Then he went back up again. According to the 9-11 memorial, the man in the red bandana made 3 trips to the Sky Lobby helping as many people as he could. Then the South Tower came down and the young man disappeared with it.
OK Solberg:For months, nobody knew his name. The survivors could only describe him as the mysterious man in the red bandana. Then Wells' mother, Allison, happened to read a newspaper account about the rescuer. She knew immediately. Her son had always carried a red bandana. The mysterious stranger wasn't a stranger at all.
OK Solberg:It was Wells Crother, her son, 24 year old, a Wall Street trader who wanted to become a firefighter, a young man who had been given a simple red bandana by his father when he was just a boy. And on the worst morning America had seen in generations, that little red bandana became a signal in the smoke.
OK Solberg:Follow me. There's a way out. And perhaps that's what makes the story a well so remarkable. He didn't save people because anybody was watching. Nobody knew his name. Nobody was giving him a medal. Nobody even knew who he was. He simply saw people who needed help and went back for them 3 times.
OK Solberg:The world eventually learned his name, but perhaps the survivors remembered something more important. They remembered the man in the red bandana. And sometimes when everything else is stripped away, that's all the world really needs to know about a man.
OK Solberg:He saw somebody who needed help and he went back in. The rest, well, that's the story of the red bandana. The end. And that's what I'm talking about. Wells never became the New York City firefighter that he'd hoped to become. But on 09/11/2001, he did something a firefighter does.
OK Solberg:He went towards the danger while other people were trying to get away from it. And, you know, Jesus said something about that kind of love, nearly 2000 years ago. From the gospel of John chapter 15 verse 13, greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
OK Solberg:So until next time, as you go out there, remember the man with the red bandana, and remember now, don't be bitter.